White Paper Unchanged, Emerson Tells Press Conference

October 29, 1939

WASHINGTON (Oct. 27)

Sir Herbert Emerson, director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, said at a press conference today that 215,000 Jews had found refuge in Palestine since 1933, including 70,000 from Germany.

Sir Herbert declined to comment on future immigration to Palestine. He said that so far as he knew the British White Paper policy remained unchanged.

Next to Palestine, the United States has accepted the largest number of refugees driven from Germany since the Hitler regime. “Settlement in Palestine,” he said, “has presented less difficulty on the economic side than any other country. Immigration has been on a large scale.”

Sir Herbert said that not less than 100 tribunals have been set up in England to handle the cases of 50,000 technical “enemy aliens,” including refugees. Only a small percentage of them will be interned, he said, while the others, including those about whom the tribunals “are not quite certain,” will be allowed to work. He predicted that the great majority would not be limited by any restrictions.